Don't Be Afraid
by blazikenXlucario
Summary: A One-Shot created just for Halloween. A boy is completely terrified of Halloween and is unfortunately alone in Lostlorn Forest on Halloween Night. But a mysterious girl shows up with blood-red hair and aquatic eyes, will she be able to ease his fear? And just who or what is this girl?


**In remembrance of my one of my favorite holidays, I will write this awesome one-shot. I hope you like this, it would be nice to receive nice reviews even though it is only a one-shot. It gets me into the holiday spirit *laughs evilly*. Maybe it'll even inspire me to write more one-shots...you never know.**

**October 31, 2012**

Poor Damien. Ever so eager to evolve his Eevee, he is desperate to evolve her into a beautiful dark-type known as Umbreon and help him defeat one of the Elite four Ghost-type trainer. Unfortunately, it was Halloween; the poor boy is completely terrified of this holiday. Wouldn't you be, especially trying to train your Pokemon in the middle of Lostlorn Forest in the pitch blackness of night on the supposedly scariest night of the year?

Damien is not much to look at, he is a boy about 14, he's bashful and very sensitive; a boy that you would definitely not a call a man. He wore regular jeans with a blue sweatshirt with a white pokeball dead in the center. He wore regular tennis shoes and had black hair and a turquoise color for his eyes.

As he watched his Eevee that he named Vee (not a very clever name), she took a quick nap to rest her strength for further battle of the wild pokemon around. Damien looked around the forest uneasily, giant Redwood trees surrounded him, followed by an eerie mist that swirled with the ominous wind over his head and below his feet. Truly a place that people would avoid on such a night, but honestly the kid was not bright and was often forgetful.

But he is not afraid of Halloween because of Legends and Fairytales. Many traumatizing things happened to him in the past on the same day, of the same month, of the same holiday.

It starts out with him only being 4 wearing a ninja costume. He goes trick-or-treating with his parents, they walked everywhere around the block, visiting door-to-door and watching pokemon scare them on the porches with delight. He was happy. That is until his excitement got to him. He ran fast towards the next block, his parents trying to catch up. Damien stumbled upon a crack and stumbled sideways and fell into an alleyway. He groaned in pain as he rubbed his cheek from the impact. He looked up and saw a menacing face look down at him, eyes inspired to kill. He gave a blood-curdling scream, his parents dashed towards him, his father tackling the stranger and his mother picking him up and hurriedly dashing towards the light-filled streets. Then a shot was heard, Damien looked back and saw his father bend over in pain as the stranger ran away. Blood was shown oozing on his father's back as he fell to the ground.

His father has been shot.

His mother screamed and people followed, pokemon and people alike ran in to help his father, while others called 911. He looked, wide-eyed at the scene that he has just witnessed while everything felt like it was in slow motion and in a rugged form. His mother carried him towards his father and knelt down to the man that was now spitting up blood and his face both pale and yellow. He shakily grabbed a pokeball from his pocket and threw it in the air. The ball glowed and a Blaziken was now out and about. The Blaziken looked at the scene in disbelief and knelt down next to its master.

"Take...take my family out...of...here." His father said weakly, pausing to cough up more blood.

The Blaziken looked at his master in pain and nodded his head slowly. He stood up and turned towards Damien and his mother, while tugging on the mother's shirt.

"NO! NO!" His mother denied, screaming in agony as she continued to watch her husband die.

Having no choice, he hauled her over his shoulder, grabbing Damien and hauling over the other. They exited, his mother kicking and screaming in denial.

Ever since that day, he has never liked Halloween, or that Batman movie; reminded him too much of his father; and his Halloweens never got better.

The next traumatizing incident he had was when he was 9. His father now pushing up daisies, Blaziken is now the 'man' of the house and takes care of Damien as if he's his own son. He also brings comfort to his poor mother, because of the stress of her husband, her immune system has been rather low. She has been getting many of the usual sickness; fever, cold...and once in a while the stomach flu.

But now she's been smoking.

She smokes a pack a day and it really hurts Blaziken to see her like this. She has been drinking more as well and that may be one of the main causes she's always sick. She usually leaves and comes back home drunk and abusive, Blaziken hides Damien until she is drunk no more.

Although it seems her mother is in a rut, she cares deeply for her son and shows it with a lot of compassion, making her other side seem more like an illusion. But all it does is make Damien confused; he always wonders, who is my mother?

Then finally, she is taken to her regular check up at the doctor's office, but now her symptoms are showing a pure negative. The car pulls up on the drive way, Damien looks out the window with a smile on his face, happy that her mother is now home. She stumbles out of her car unsteadily and closes the car door weakly. Damien is worried that her mother is drunk again. Her hand shakes when she tried to unlock the door with her keys, but Blaziken opens the door for her instead. Damien runs towards the door eager to see his mother, but Blaziken gesturing him back just in case she is drunk and abusive. But when Blaziken and Damien looked at her face, mascara and eyeliner were drenched and sinking down her face, her face just like Damien's dying father. It looked like she has been through hell.

"Blaziken, I need to talk to you." She said, her throat tight.

Blaziken helped carry her purse in and escorted her to the couch in the living room, while rubbing Damien's head and gesturing him towards the stairs. He stared at his mother suspiciously and fully complied, he ran up the stairs and went around the corner in the hall...he waited for a couple of minutes then stealthily walked down the stairs and looked over the railing where the back of Blaziken's and his mother's head were seen and listened.

"The doctor told me something horrible today." Her mother said in a depressing tone.

"Blaze Blaziken." Blaziken said in a worried tone.

"I can't believe that I...I...I have this. It doesn't seem really." She choked and began to cry.

"Blaziken?" Blaziken asked as he gave his mother a reassuring hug.

"I...I...I have...I have Lung Cancer." She said in a hoarse tone.

"Ken!" Blaziken exclaimed unbelievably.

"He said it was because of smoking..."

"Blazi Blaziken, Ken Zi Blaziken!" Blaziken exclaimed.

"I just can't stop..."

"Blaziken Blazi Blaze Zi Ken Blaziken!"

All the while listening to the shocking conversation, tears streamed down Damien's face. He clamped his hand over his mouth to prevent whimpering and coughing. His foot slipped, and Blaziken turned around to spot a boy that was now running up the fleet of stairs.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XX**

Finally, the last traumatizing experience was linked to the last one, he is now 10 and his mother is in the hospital. He visits once a week on a Friday, only to see her poor mother in a coma, hooked up to machinery that went down her throat and in her chest that helped her breathe. It broke Damien's heart every time he saw her.

Until finally, Blaziken stops him from going over there. He sits with Damien and helps him get his mind off his mother and focus on the much better things he has now. On his birthday, he will be able to go on his journey as a Pokemon trainer and travel around the Hoenn region.

The next day, he visits the Professor and helps him with the trainer's pokemon that they leave there for a limited time. It is his new job now and he certainly enjoys the fresh air and the thought of new life when an egg hatches form a pokemon couple that got together on their journey. Today he was feeding the flying types a very nice combination of many pokeblock that all flying types love, when the professor came up behind him.

"Damien, there you are!" The professor cried cheerfully.

"Hello, professor." Damien returned the welcome.

"I have a special surprise for you since I heard that your birthday is coming up." He said excitedly.

He pulled out a pokeball from his lab coat and hoisted it up in the air, a white beam enveloping a figure and soon disappearing. A beautiful and cute female Torchic looked at Damien with love in her eyes.

"She is your new starter Damien, I saved her just for you." The professor explained.

Damien grabbed the Torchic and gave her a hug, the Torchic cried her name in glee and cuddled against his cheeks. She began to peck his face in an affectionate manner, only resulting Damien rubbing his face that was now red.

"Thank you so much Professor!" Damien cried in glee.

Months went by and he went on his journey, collecting many pokemon when his birthday was over. He won some battles and lost some battles, but pursued to make both his mother and father and Blaziken proud. He faced the Elite four and beat the Champion with struggle but still won in the end.

But when returning home, he saw Blaziken staring off into space with a sad look in his eyes. He noticed Damien enter and quickly walked over to him to give him a congratulating hug. He gave Damien a small smile and gave a couple of lines of 'Blaziken' in a greeting way.

"I'm glad to be home after such a long trip, I can't wait to show mom-" Blaziken held his arm and gave him a depressing look. Damien yanked his arm away from him and stared at him wide-eyed, he shook his head in denial and ran out the door towards the Hospital.

"BLAZIKEN!" The Blaziken called as he ran after Damien.

Damien ignored him and continued to ran as fast as he could towards the Hospital. He barged inside and ran up the fleet of stairs to the level his mother was on. He ran down the hall and opened his mother's door vigorously...only to see her bed was vacant and her machines were gone.

He collapsed and wept on the bed she once was on, he looked on the calendar and the day that was encircled and marked with the death of his mother read; October 31st.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

All those times only made Damien more paranoid of the holiday. He hated it and accused it that it killed his parents. But he is only a boy, he will not reminisce on this. Instead he forgets that it ever happened, but the fear remains.

Suddenly, a twig snapped a couple of yards away from him. He turned around quickly and only saw mist and darkness. He heard leaves rustle and spun around once again, only to see leaves fall to the ground mercifully. Then he heard faint breathing and began to shiver, fear clinging to him as he waited for his demise but when he thought it was over...he felt someone tap his shoulder. He moved his head and he opened his mouth in shock.

Standing there was beautiful girl with red hair and aquatic blues eyes, she was very slim and attractive with an innocent look and a red jacket that looked too big for her was draped around her.

"Why are you out here?" She asked innocently.

Damien didn't pay attention, he was lost in her eyes. To him her voice was like silk and pure velvet just like her hair. She tugged at his heartstrings. He doesn't know it...but the girl feels the same way.

"Excuse me?" She asked.

"Oh...uh...sorry, please repeat what you just said." Damien said uncomfortably.

"I asked why are you here?" She repeated.

"Oh, I'm here to help my friend evolve into an Umbreon." He answered, gesturing towards the sleeping Eevee.

"I see. Well, I won't keep you from your training." She said as she exited.

"Wait!" Damien called.

The girl turned around and walked back towards him," What's wrong?"

"I...I...I-"

She gestured him to go on with an encouraging expression on her face.

"I...I'm scared...to be out here...tonight." He said uncomfortably.

"Just because it's Halloween?" She asked.

He nodded, feeling uneasy to tell the girl of his dreams he's afraid of something.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, besides you have your pokemon with you. They'll help you feel better." She answered, a smile on her face.

"Well, it's just-"

"Hm?"

"My parents died on Halloween." He admittedly, a depressing tone in his voice.

"I'm sorry to hear that, at least you got to spend some years with them right?"

"Huh?"

"My parents died when I was born and I didn't have any one else to take care of me." She explained.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Damien said.

"Well, at least they both are now in a better place. They don't have to feel any more pain and suffering and they're together." She tries to reassure him. "People believe Halloween was the time where the border between our world and the spirit world is broken only for one night, so we all have to dress like monsters so they won't get us. But it is all fake. The death of your parents are all just coincidences."

He looks down to think things over, giving the two of them an awkward silence.

"The only thing to fear is fear itself, it's the only thing that makes people do stupid things and drive them mad. But do you think your parents would want you to be afraid like this and live in the past?" She asked.

He knew she had a point, he has been scared for too long and haven't really considered to not follow up in his path.

"I guess, you're right. My parents wouldn't want me to dwell in the past and they sure don't want to be afraid of the dark anymore." Damien said.

The girl walked up to him and shockingly gave him a deep kiss on his lips, tongue touching as the girl led the boy into shock and pleasure...but as quickly as it came, she let go. The boy gave her a shocked look, but his eyes were far-off, hypnotized by the kiss.

"To honestly tell you the truth, I think your handsome." She said sweetly, blush appearing on her face.

"I feel the same towards you...promise me we will meet again." Damien urged.

The girl looked at him with sparkling eyes and nodded excitedly.

"Meet me here again tomorrow, this time in the daylight." She said with a loving and sincere smile.

"Of course." He complied with the same expression.

With that, she turned around and walked towards the mist, but before she walked into the enveloping mist...she turned into a Zoroark and ran off.

Damien looked at the direction she left, stunned by what had just happened..but couldn't be happier. He collapsed against the tree and slid down to the ground and sat next to his sleeping Eevee. He grabbed a sleeping bag and unfurled it and crawled in, not wanting to leave the spot that he found his true love, his one and only lover that is a Zoroark...on Halloween Night.

**Liked it? REVIEW!**

**Thanks for Reading!**

**Kairi =^.^=**


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